711 




Class_t_iL/ I 





President's 
^r Death 



BY EDWARD E. HALE 



Published by The Ariel Press 

Haverhill, Mass. 

1901 



The President's Death. 



Address delivered on the day of the President's 
funeral, in the South Congregational Church, Boston, 



By EDWARD Ei HALE. 



E7I1 
•Mm 






THE PRESIDENT'S DEATH. 




ERE are the central and sacred words 
in which the Saviour of men founded 
civil government : 

" Whosoever would be great among you shall be 
your servant, and whosoever would be first of 
you shall be your bond-servant : even as the Son 
of man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." 

This is a statement drawn from him by two 
office-seekers with their mother. It may be 
called the Golden Motto of Democracy. 

I need not attempt, what from my lips would 
be an imperfect statement of Mr. McKinley's 
character and life. I can read ~ what cannot be 
read too often, the verdict of his friend — who 
had served him so faithfully in his cabinet : 

*' President McKinley of blessed life is now, 
and more and more as time goes on, will be of 
blessed memory. The asperities which afflict 
a public servant during his official career, but 



4 cbe Prcsiacnrs Deatb. 

which have been much less attendant upon Pres- 
ident McKinley than upon other presidents of 
like prominence, notably Lincoln, will quickly 
be forgotten ; and the calm just verdict of history 
will pronounce him a man of ideally pure, 
true character, a patriot of single and disinter- 
ested devotion to his country, and a statesman 
unexcelled for tact, prudence and practical com- 
petency. His domestic life is one of the precious 
sanctities of American sentiment. His amiabil- 
ity, poise of temper and genuine sympathy, not 
assumed, but instinctive, with his fellow men, 
identified him with them, and put him in kinship 
with them to an extent never surpassed. His long 
legislative career, in which he rose to leadership, 
not only gave him facility in that line of work, 
but enabled him, when he became President, 
to put himself in such relation with Congress, 
as no other President ever had. He enjoyed 
with that co-ordinate branch of the government 
such influence and such responsive co-opera- 
tion as he enjoyed as a President. His adminis- 
tration has been a series of remarkable achieve- 
ments. It has been attended by great military 
successes, by an abounding prosperity, by the 
revival of business and industrial enterprise, and 
by the practically unanimous approval of the 
whole country. It has put out the last embers of 



CDc msldctit's DcatD. 5 

national bitterness. It has been marked by ap- 
pointments of high character and especial fitness 
to places of great trust. The tone of the public 
official, the efficiency of the civil service, the 
integrity and ability of all departments and 
branches of its executive government were never 
so high as today. President McKinley leaves 
an unblemished record in public and private life; 
and a record not merely free from blemish, but 
bright with good deeds done, with great services 
rendered ; the world better because he lived in 
it, and his country greater and happier because, 
giving it in war and in peace his youth and his 
manhood, he was its citizen, its servant and its 
President." 

The author of this tribute to his memory is 
our own Governor Long, who had served un- 
der Mr. McKinley so well ; himself a states- 
man of world-wide breadth and foresight, and 
an executive officer prompt and successful. 

Such a life as is thus described is to be a lesson 
and incentive to our nation. The history of such 
a life, as from year to year it is better and better 
known, gives us the best training for the build- 
ing up of good citizens. It is the best and the 
most attractive. At the Rivington Street " Set- 



6 CDe Pre$idetif $ DeatD. 

tlement House " in New York, a model home 
for hundreds of street boys from the slums of 
emigrant life there, I asked in their library what 
the boys wanted to read most. " History," was 
the immediate reply. "And what history?" 
*' Oh ! the history of their new country of Amer- 
ica." Absolutely indifferent, every boy of them, 
to the lives of Frederic, of Blucher, of Bismarck, 
or of Moltke! "History, indeed," said the 
Librarian, "means to these boys the lives of 
Washington and of Lincoln. Send me one hun- 
dred volumes of such lives and I will show you 
one hundred boys ready for them here the next 
evening." 

"Therefore speak I unto them in parables." 
And the best parable is the life that is true. 
This farmer's boy enlisting in the army; the 
young sergeant dealing out his coffee and his 
hard-tack under fire to the regiment which he 
served. The teacher in an Ohio school while 
he studied Law and studied it to a purpose. The 
favorite of all sorts and conditions of men, so 
that they chose him to Congress over the heads 
of all competitors in a district manufactured to 
keep such men out : this keen eyed observer 



CDc Presldttirs Dwtb. 7 

who knows men so well that he knows how to 
learn from them what they know, --this simple, 
unconceited child of God who really wants to 
have God's will done, and who really believes 
that God means to take the man through who 
is at work that way. Here is the man whose life 
is to be read, perhaps by the light of pine knots, 
by boys who read Washington's life, and Lin- 
coln's, and Franklin's. It is going to teach them 
what text books and catechisms cannot teach 
them. It is going to quicken them and uplift 
them, and develope them, as no examination does 
and no medal, and no diploma. Such a hand- 
book for the training of the citizen is to be added 
to the gospels -all too few —for our political and 
social education. 

His political opponents were sometimes 
annoyed that he had what they would have 
called that gift of "putting things," which is so 
omnipotent in debate, when the adversary has 
no such power, and especially when he is wrong. 
But you could not help it. Mr. McKinley's gift 
that way was the outcome simply of the convic- 
tion that in the end the Moral Forces are the 
only Forces which will endure. In them no 



8 CDe Pmiacnrs Dwtft. 

Dry Rot, no Wet Rot, no moth, no rust, no 
expansion, no contraction ; the same yesterday, 
today and forever ! When the American Revo- 
lution began, the wise men of Europe said that 
the two reliable leaders whom the rebels could 
rest upon were those " accomplished English 
soldiers" Charles Lee, and Horatio Gates, who 
knew all the arts of strategy, in war. " What a 
misfortune for Liberty, that her cause was 
handicapped, because these great leaders were 
under the command of a Virginia tobacco planter 
named George Washington, who had never seen 
two thousand men in line of battle ! " Well ! 
History taught its lesson in but few years. 
There needed but two years and Lee, the more 
"distinguished" of these great commanders, 
had sold himself to General Howe of the Brit- 
tish army. Three years more and Gates, the 
second of them, was riding north as fast as his 
horse would carry him from his own defeat at 
Camden. And the Virginia planter, who from 
first to last, had relied on the Moral Forces as 
the guides in strategy, in experience and in all 
the teachings of the past, he proves to be the 
foremost man in all the world. 



CDe Pre$ldenr$ Death. 9 

The cunning of the fox, the blood-thirstiness 
of the wolf, any of the mere animal gifts, whether 
of brain, or muscle, or appetite, are nothing and 
nowhere, when you need a leader who can 
"endure to the end." It is that leader who "is 
saved," and who saves his country. And 
the three leading principles which abide and 
continue forever are the three Eternities, Faith, 
Hope and Love. 

A day of prayer is this ! And for what are 
we to pray ? We have prayed that God would 
direct the surgeons and physicians, the nurses 
and servants ; that God would give the sufferer 
courage — that his human life might be spared. 
The prayer was answered in part, but his life 
was not spared. Courage, patience, science, 
skill have not undone that which the murderer 
has learned to do too well. We cannot undo the 
past. God cannot. We must look forward and 
not back. 

First, to be sure that such horrors do not 
recur — if we may say "be sure." Three Presi- 
dents from twenty-five in all, have been mur- 
dered because they were Presidents. This is 



10 CDc Prcsidenrs Death. 

quite too many. You cannot say this of Kings 
or Emperors in modern times. '* We, the peo- 
ple of America," that is, "We the Sovereign of 
America " must not sacrifice in such wise the 
lives of those who serve us. As we say with a 
shudder that we ought not to send our Second 
Regiment to Cuba without the new smokeless 
powder, we ought to say now that we will not 
bring up murderers among our people, and we 
will not expose our servants to their craft or 
madness. As God lives, crazy people shall not 
kill those who are trying to serve us, whom we 
have ordered to serve us. As God lives, no 
conspirators shall do this. We will guard, as 
only a Sovereign can, the citizen Servants of 
ours who owe their distinction to their Loyal 
Service. 

Our national vanity has received here a lesson 
much needed. When the pistol was fired, the 
whole land began to declaim against foreigners 
and their training of despotism. "We must 
watch the arrivals at our ports more carefully, 
we must send back the anarchists." True enough. 
But while we debated such plans, it proved that 
this man is not a foreigner. He was born under 



CDc Presidenrs Dc4tb. ii 

the Aegis of Freedom. He had his chance with 
the best in the land for the training of the public 
schools. He had his chance for that religious 
training, which we are told every day is under 
the best system yet devised. Nay, it is even 
said that we have trained him in our army, and 
that he receives a pension for the wound he 
received in our service. 

Let this result check our vain-glory till In 
some happy day we can show that we do Edu- 
cate men where now we only instruct them. 
Let church and school be quicker and stronger 
in giving God's children the training which is 
divine. Let preacher and teacher, the old with 
the young, the mistress with the servant, the 
father with the daughter, the mother with the 
son, vie with each other and out-do the past, as 
they seek the Kingdom of God, and his Right- 
eousness. First, second and last, let teacher, 
preacher, father, mother, master, mistress, fore- 
man, captain, manager and superintendent — let 
every one who claims the name of Leader in- 
spire and instill the Wisdom which is *' First 
pure, then peaceable, then gentle and easy to 
be entreated, without partiality and without 
hypocrisy." 



12 CDc Pmidenrs Dc4fft. 

Indeed, as this week has passed, I have fan- 
cied one could see already some slight improve- 
ment here. The public and private exhibitions 
of grief seem to me to offer some ground for 
hope, which -in a grim, cheerless way -offers 
a sort of alleviation to the misery of the catas- 
trophe. 

We may observe a world-wide distinction 
between the national display of grief and the 
grief of a nation which has lost a King or an 
Emperor. The Sovereign of America is the 
People of America. This People entrusts its 
affairs to thousands of officers, and the central 
executive duty to a President. The very name 
is significant : he presides over the work of those 
who serve the Sovereign. He is the Chief 
Magistrate. He is not the Ruler of the nation. 
The People is the Ruler, and the People rules 
him and all its other officers. For a Republic 
follows in literal truth the statement of the Sav- 
iour, that *' he who is greatest among you shall 
be your bond-servant." It is a statement where 
he compares such men's duty and place to his 
own. The true Son of Man comes not to be 
ministered unto, but to minister. 



Zhz Pmiaeitt'$ Death. i3 

I say I think there is, therefore, a tone of per- 
sonal indignation in the outcry of grief. I think 
that every American whose chief servant has 
been wounded, feels that he thrust that president 
forward. Every citizen is himself attacked, 
wounded, insulted. " I bade this man take this 
duty. I sent him on this errand. When you 
kill him it is to me that you are responsible ! " 
This is not the tone — nor can it be — of the sub- 
ject of a hereditary king or emperor. 

Let the Nation take to heart this lesson. The 
Old World cannot understand it. No matter ! 
We can ! The People is the Sovereign. 

When our fathers here founded this Common- 
wealth, they said that they did it *'That this 
may be a government of Laws, and not of men." 

On this, or in the noble words of the Prophet 
that "their nobles shall be of themselves, and 
their governor shall proceed from the midst of 
them," on this Rock the Nation stands. Mr. 
McKinley is the Chief Magistrate of the Nation, 
— not its Ruler. He also bows before the Su- 
preme Court. Mr. Roosevelt is the Chief Ser- 
vant of the Nation. You and I, John here and 
Michael there have bidden them take these duties. 



14 Cftc Prwident's DwtD. 

They must do it. They may not withdraw. As 
the soldier must climb the steep at Santiago, as 
the sailor must nail the colors to the mast, these 
men must obey the American People ! 

Let the American people see to it then that 
no man defames, insults, attacks, or abuses its 
officers - not in light talk, not in the newspapers, 
not by the hand of murder. Let the American 
people preserve them from insult and from 
injury. Let it demand that the State shall be 
respected. As the church in church-ruled lands 
demands respect for its processions and ceremo- 
nies, so the People must demand respect for 
Law, for Order, for the State itself. No words 
of insult 1 No usurpation of authority 1 No 
mean imputation of indecent motive ! All for 
each and each for all ! Behind parties, behind 
politics, behind men and names is the Country, 
and she is your Country. 

Her homage is to Law and Order. Her ser- 
vants are the ministers of God- whose kingdom 
is the reign of law and order. To honor these 
servants, to strengthen their hands, to protect 
them from insults -this is what we promise, this 
is what we expect when we say, " Thy kingdom 



Cb« Pr«iacnt'$ Death. is 

come, Thy will be done, here in our Country 
as it is everywhere in Thy Heaven." 

Mr. McKinley had been rightly believed to be 
a cordial friend to all theories of International 
Peace. To the last moment he hoped to prevent 
the Spanish War. For that war the Congress 
of the United States made itself responsible by 
the most remarkable display of unanimity with 
which that body ever acted. Under the Consti- 
tution the Congress of the United States has the 
only power to declare war, and to raise armies. 
Mr. McKinley has been abused by fools that 
he regarded its instruction. Or it has been 
thought, perhaps, that he could have obeyed in 
a half-hearted way, -that he could have pre- 
tended to obey. Indeed, the same people who 
call him an emperor are the people who say he 
meanly obeyed the people, because "he did the 
thing he was set to do," because he was the 
commander in chief of the American Army, 
through the hundred days of the Spanish War. 

All the same, he has been one of the leaders 
in the cause of Universal Peace. When the 
time came, he made peace in the face of all 



16 Cbc Pmidcnrs DcatD. 

« 

opposition. The very same men who abused 
him for making war are the men who blame him 
for making peace. It is to such conflict and 
criticism that our servants are exposed when 
we place them in responsibility. 

When the history of the peace negotiations is 
brought to light, all the verdict of the future will 
be a verdict of thankfulness to this man to whom 
was given the maintenance of the peace of the 
world. He maintained it. The inner secret of 
his heart was disclosed when he said in Buf- 
falo the day before he was murdered, '* Let us 
ever remember that our interest is in concord, 
not conflict, and that our real eminence rests 
on the victories of peace, not those of war." 




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013 788 846 4 



